Display-rack.



B. J. BUGKINGHAM.

DISPLAY BACK.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 26, 100e.

1,026,241, Patented May14,1912.

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B. J. BUCKINGHAM.

DISPLAY RADK.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT, 26, 190e.

1,026,241 Patented May 14, 1912. l

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN J'. BUCKINGI-IAM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN MENTS, TO BUCKINGHAM-RAE COMPANY, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

DISPLAY-RACK.

Specification o1 Letters Patent.

Patented May 111, 1912.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN J. Boon- INGHAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Display-Racks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to display racks and has for its object to provide a simple and convenient holder or rack by means of which articles may be held for display or in storaOfe.

2:,The device is particularly adapted for holding skirts and other articles of clothing where it is desirable to hold a considerable extent of smoothly folded material grasped between members which will at once take a firm grip upon the material without danger of injury of any kind by removal or insertion.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure l is an elevation of one form of my device; Fig. 2, a plan view with parts broken away; Fig. 3, a section on line 3 3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4L, a detail in plan of a modification, and Fig. 5, a like view illustrating another modification.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts in all the drawings.

I have shown and shall describe my display rack as consisting of a standard with a circular device rotatably connected therewith and carrying at its perimeter a number of co-acting holding elements or lingers. It will be obvious, however, that the particular form or shape of the device is not essential, nor the manner of its mounting, although I consider that the circular form above shown and the rotatable mounting is preferable.

A represents a base preferably mounted on the casters A1 A1 and carrying a standard B which may conveniently be made of a piece of pipe or tubing in the end of which may be inserted the pointed block B1 forming a pivot for the wheel like rack device. The latter, in my preferred construction, consists of an upper disk of wood C, and a lower metal disk cl, the latter having the central hub D1 to extend over the standard B and the circular shoulder D2 near its outer circumference, forming an off-set rim or flange part D3. The articles are designed they are preferably bent over or arched with their ends suitably secured to the" disks. These fingers or holders I have indicated by the letters E.

In order to reinforce the fingers and to prevent them from being overbalanced or forced too much to 'one side or the other, I intersperse at suitable intervals rigid lingers or members which serve, in a sense, as stops to limit the spring action of the fingers contained between them. In Figs. l to 3 inclusive I have shown these elements as consisting of the wooden fingers F. Preferably they extend some distance beyond the ends of the spring ngers so as to prevent injury to the fingers if the rack should chance to be pushed over. The line .fw-a1 indicates the proper length of the wooden fingers to protect the spring fingers. It will be seen, therefore, that the holding elements of the device are divided into groups, each group being in a certain sense independent in its action of the other groups. The lingers E and F may be secured to the disks C, D in any desired manner. I have shown the lingers as provided with a perforation for a wire G and properly separated by spacing blocks or wedges I-I, the latter being secured to the upper or wooden disks by the nails H1. These wedges or blocks lie between the two ends of each of the springs. The fingers E, F preferably abut against the shoulder D2, the disks C, D being held together by bolts I-I2 I-I.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a modified form of reinforcement. In this construction the spring fingers lie adjacent to each other all the way around the device, the reinforcement consisting of rigid strips of wood or metal preferably employed in pairs and insei-ted between the spacing blocks II and the inside surfaces of the spring fingers. These reinforcements are indicated by the letter J. Any suitable number of fingers may be thus reinforced, this construction likewise dividing the holding devices or fingers into groups.

In Fig. 5 I have shown a form of rack where the fingers are entirely dispensed sider preferable but the holder might, of

course, be elliptical or have any other desired shape.

The Vuse and operation of my invention are as follows: The articles to be suspended o-r exhibited are properly folded and then inserted between two adjacent spring fingers or between one such spring finger and the adjacent rigid stop. The presence of such a stop at intervals prevents the series of fingers being overbala'nced or forced too much to one side when but a few fingers are in use' and when they are all massed on one portion of the device. The action of any two spring fingers is to grasp the articles between each other at two points, one near the point of engagement with the central hub and the other near the point of termination of the finger arches. Between these points the fabric of the article to be supported is loosely held. By arranging these flat faced, outwardly arched and closed spring fingers in groups I can dispense with intermediate devices for as the fingers present flat surfaces in opposition to each other, there is no tendency to displacement, and as they are formed each with a closed arch at its outer end, the material is securely grasped withoutany reinforcing devices. In other words, the spring ngers, shaped as I have shown, reinforce each other. As previously suggested, these spring fingers may be arranged about a hub or ellipse, or on opposite sides of a bar, and the whole may be supported in any desired manner. I/Vith such a structure there is no waste space and no wasteparts. The rigid stops are not always necessary.

Short arched spring-fingers are adapted to hold an object at a single clamping area. If the fingers are made of a certain properly proportioned length and strength, they will develop two clamping areas near their respective ends, with an intermediate area of low tension clamping capacity. The inner clamp-ing area is due primarily to the elasticity of the metal of the springs, they being forced aside by the introduction of the article to' be clamped. The outer clamping areas are due tothe support given to the outer end of the spring-finger or its arch by something which is applied to the side thereof. If such fingers, as I have shown,

be not supportednear the base of their outer arches, an object forced between two of them will simply push them aside until the outer clamping area practically coincides with the inner, and there is in effect but one clamping area. If the outer arches be supported on both sides at approximately their bases, the

clamping areas will remain at substantially the same distance from each other under ordinary conditions, and if the spring-fin gers are of` sufficient length, there will be maintained between each pair two separated high tension clamping areas with an intermediate low tension section, and the device becomes suitable for sup-porting articles which require to be supported along a line of considerable length in order that they may hang properly. If such fingers are arranged in groups, and each is supported either by contact with another or by contact of the outer fingers of the group with rigid supports, such proper relation of the two clamping areas will result. The division by a series of rigid fingers or stops of sufficient length forms a series of discontinuous groups, each of which is, to all intents and purposes, separated from the other groups and forms a separate holder. The arrangement of the fingers in a` circle so that each may be supported on each side by a spring finger forms a continuous grou and then no rigid stop for the purpose o supporting the arches of the fingers is necessary. The rigid fingers or stops, it will thereforeV be seen, perform the double function (l) ofV dividing the otherwise continuous group of spring-fingers into a series of discontinuous or small groups each ofwhich is independent of the others, and is protected against lateral displacement, and (2) supporting the outer spring fingers at the bases of their arches, and thus holding or causing the several fingers in like manner to support each other, so that the relation of the two points or areas of high-tension clamping is maintained throughout such entire discontinuous group. Ihe shorter inner supports or stops J J perform to a degree, the function first attributed to the rigid stops or fingers F, for they serve to divide the set of fingers into discontinuous, separately acting groups; but they are not long enough to perform the other function of the fingers F, because they do not sup-port the spring-fingers with which they are associated at the bases of their respective arches.

The preferred form of my device is that shown in Fig. 5, when mounted as shown in Fig. l, for I prefer to have a` continuous -or circularly arranged group of rotatably mounted spring-fingers- In such a structure, the use of intermediate rigid stops of either kind I find to be usually unnecessary. They appear to be entirely unnecessary in the use to which I have found my invention as particularly applicable, that is, the support of ladies skirts, which require a relatively long line of support, and are best supported Where there are two separated high tension clamping areas at the ends of the line of support, with intermediate, relatively loW-tension clamping areas.

I claim:

l. A garment holder comprising a support and a group of flat, outwardly arched springfingers in Contact with each other along their sides, and each supported on each side near the base of its arch, and all of such length and strength that they form near their respective ends high-tension clamping areas with intermediate low-tension clamping surfaces.

2. A garment holder comprising a support and a group of flat, outwardly arched springlingers in contact with each other along their sides, and each supported on each side near the base of its arch, and all of such length and strength that they form near their respective ends high-tension clamping areas with intermediate low-.tension clamping surfaces, the fingers arranged in a continuous group, each supported on each side by the adjacent spring-fingers.

3. A garment holder comprising a support and a group of flat, outwardly arched sprlngfingers in contact with each other along their sides, and each supported on each side near the base of its arch by another spring-iinger so as to form a continuous group, and all of such length and strength that they form near their respective ends high-tension clamping areas with intermediate low-tension clamping surfaces, said support comprising a Ver tical part with a laterally projecting rotating part mounted thereon.

BENJAMIN J. BUCKINGI-IAM.

Witnesses:

PERCIVAL A. TRUMAN, LUCY A. FALKENBERG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents1 Washington, D. 0. 

